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Dismay Over First Cloned Human Embryo
With additional reporting by Neveen A. Salem
WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - American Muslims, the Vatican and Western governments expressed dismay and vowed a robust legislative response after a U.S. company claimed Sunday it had cloned the world's first human embryo.
Muslims and the Catholic Church have likewise condemned the practice of human cloning.
A Massachusetts firm, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), said it had created a cloned embryo in the first stage of development - a tiny cluster of cells that were the exact genetic copy of their female donor. Up to half a dozen cells were created before the process halted.
The United States, the European Union, Britain and France all spoke out against the procedure, prompted by fears that the world had taken a step further towards the nightmare of humans replicated in the lab.
Among religious organizations, the Islamic Institute in Washington D.C., told IslamOnline that according to their poll of the American Muslim population, Muslims in the U.S. "vehemently" opposed human cloning.
"Muslims have utterly and vehemently rejected human cloning experimentation that contradicts Islamic legislation and is prohibited in all its forms because it contradicts with Islam," stated the Islamic Institute.
The Vatican said it "unequivocally" condemned the research, while in Moscow, the Russian Orthodox church branded human cloning as "murder.
U.S. President George W. Bush on Sunday reiterated through a spokeswoman his "100 percent" opposition to all types of human cloning, and urged the Senate to back initiatives in the House of Representatives to criminalize such work.
Britain said it was moving swiftly to close "obvious loopholes" in regulating the biotechnology industry, after a High Court ruled earlier this month that cloning humans was not technically illegal.
Junior health minister Philip Hunt said the U.S. news showed how important it was to get emergency legislation through parliament this week that would regulate the cloning industry.
The European Union's executive Commission said while it opposed human cloning, it would finance stem cell research involving the use of aborted fetuses or surplus fetuses left over from in-vitro fertilization.
A commission spokeswoman said legislation on most ethical and health questions was up to each individual E.U. member state, adding that seven E.U. states have no laws restricting cloning.
France said its own bill on bioethics - scheduled to come before French parliament in January - would outlaw the procedure.
France and Germany have proposed a joint resolution at the U.N. General Assembly to ban human cloning in all United Nations member states.
"Any such experiments are irresponsible. Reproductive or therapeutic cloning is forbidden [in Germany] and it will remain so," German Research Minister Edelgard Bulmahn said Monday.
Italy, home to embryologist Severino Antinori who in August caused a storm when he said he would be behind pioneering efforts to clone humans, called the experiments unacceptable.
Italian Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia also called the U.S. experiments a "risky commercial operation."
The head of Spain's Scientific Research Council - where human cloning is illegal - said he was concerned that private companies can conduct research into cloning humans, while publicly funded organizations are barred from such research.
Scientists have long warned about a multitude of difficulties associated with cloning mammals, including miscarriage, premature delivery, genetic abnormalities and stillbirths.
The most outspoken critics have warned that in the process of creating a healthy human clone, scientists could create dozens of deformed human specimens.
ACT says there is a big difference between reproductive cloning - bringing a clone to term as a baby - and therapeutic cloning, which could help reverse diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's and other degenerative ailments.
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